It's Annoying
by Linsneakers
Summary: Rita gets sick and everyone makes a big fuss about it... Except for Raven.


It's Annoying

Silence. There was utter silence, until,

"_Achoo!_" everyone turned, staring at the girl who was having a war between a sneezing and coughing fit.

Rita Mordio.

Had gotten sick.

She had tried to hide it, but trying to hold down coughs while she was talking wasn't really working out for her. Her voice would get soft and then her words would just stop middway as she tried saying them without barking like a dog. She obviously was having trouble hearing everyone, since she had to ask them to say what they said again around two or three times.

Karol was getting a good kick of this, making fun of her, only to have her either not hear what he said, or ask him to say it again, and if that happened, he'd say something completely different. Estelle was worrying, frantically searching through many medical books trying to see if there was an easy cure so the mage wouldn't suffer long through it. Of course...that wasn't getting anywhere. Both Yuri and Judy were making her take cough medicine and pain-killers when the girl was able to, which Rita extremely hated.

But the old man.

Raven.

He did nothing.

He just stood there beside Repede, watching as everyone did their thing to try helping the girl (except Karol, although he'd get bored and help eventually) and looked blankly ahead. Everyone was surprised he hadn't tried cracking a few jokes behind her back, and Karol even mentioned it, but all the old man did was shrug his shoulders and nothing more.

Estelle tried to get him to help her read some of the books, but again, all he did was shrug.

Judith asked if he would go get Rita some more cold medicine and cough candies, but he shook his head and the Krityan woman had to go get it herself. She gave him a nice little kick to the shin for not helping out, but he didn't even flinch.

Yuri had asked him if his feet were glued to the floor, but when the older man hopped on the spot for a few seconds, the vigilante just sighed and turned back to the tomato soup he was making for the sick mage.

Minutes passed and Raven just stared, the dog still laying next to him doing the same. Karol soon was helping Estelle with the books, even though everyone else seemed to know they wouldn't find anything, nobody bothered telling the two. Somehow, Flynn had gotten in on the action too. He'd passed by Yuri when the man had quickly ran out to get some more ingredients for the soup, and he'd explained the situation to his friend who was willingly eager to help.

Rita had started staring back at the old geezer, who just continued not to move an inch. Her hazy emerald eyes were misted with frustration and confusion. Like...how had she gotten sick in a desert? Sure, the nights were extremely cold, but the inn made supremely sure that all their customers were super warm. The girl had even wore a couple extra layers to bed, just in case. Nobody else had, so why was she the only one to get sick? It wasn't fair!

Bursting into another coughing fit, the girl nearly fell off the chair she was sitting on, the outburst lasting for what seemed like an eternity for everyone. When they all thought it was over, she'd up and start coughing again. And that happened multiple times.

They'd just saved the world and decided seeing how the citizens were doing without blastia.

Nobody thought one of them would get sick.

More minutes passed by as Rita was starting to get pestered by everything. The princess and young boy had given up on the books and started asking the mage if she needed or wanted anything, while the other three were fussing over....something. As Rita entered into another coughing fit, and she looked at the older man weakly as everyone else continued to fuss, Raven had had enough of it.

"Enough!!!" the dog by his feet jumped with surprise, as did everyone else who gazed at him with wild eyes,"Can't ya see ya all are buggin' the poor girl? Crowdin' around her like that ain't gon' help her none! Ya guys hafta give her space and rest if ya want her ta get better! Sure, ya can check up on her time ta time, but right now, the poor kid needs some rest! It's like ya think she's got some incurable disease or somethin', sheesh!"

Everyone blinked at the oldest in the group, before blinking and turning to Rita, muttering apologies, before the sick girl leaned forward and fell to the floor, unconcious.

"Ah, Rita!" Estelle quickly kneeled down next to her friend and raised her hands to use her healing artes, but Raven stopped her by picking the young mage in his arms and carrying her to her room, laying her in the bed. He turned and locked the door as footsteps were heard rushing to the room. Why everyone was so worried, he didn't know. It was just a cold, for heaven's sakes!

After knocking at the door a couple more times, Raven had had it with all of them. He quickly unlocked the door and opened it, glaring at the group.

"Will you all just shut up and go away?! Didn't ya hear what I said before?! Rita needs rest, not constant attention, that's not gon' make her any better, damnit! Now shut up, go away and find something better to do with your time then make a sick girl even worse!" he quickly shut the door again, but not so hard which it would slam. Locking it again he heard the footsteps slowly fade away as they left down the hall, obviously not knowing what to do know.

Sitting down next to the bed, Raven smirked,"Ya can wake up now. I know you were fakin' the whole faintin' thing."

An emerald eye opened up to look at him, before a small smile graced the sick one's face,"You're pretty smarter than...I...thought...old man." the man quickly frowned. She was trying not to cough as she spoke again.

"Cough when ya hafta. Holdin' em back will only make it worse."

"...What?"

"...Cough when you need to, kiddo. It'll only get worse if you hold em back."

Sitting up, the girl pouted, before hacking into her hands again. Rubbing her back, Raven tried calming her down. Her coughing fits hadn't been this bad until everyone had started to fuss over her, which caused her uneeded stress. Didn't these people know how to treat someone when they were sick? Jeeze!

Rita glared, placing her hands down on her lap as her coughing fit stopped,"...It's annoying. I hate this." sniffling, Rita laid back down after Raven removed his hand from her back, and started staring ahead at the ceiling.

Raven sighed, brushing his hand through her hair. She was going to kill him when she was better, no doubt. The man almost flinched at how hot she felt. She definitely had a fever...

"I know, kiddo. Bein' sick sucks, but just a few days an' it'll go away!" the girl looked at Raven through the corner of her eye, sniffling again.

"...What?"

Raven's lip twitched. He had noticed her clutching her ears when Ba'ul had started the descent, and that probably did not help with the hearing thing. Wait...so she'd been getting sick before they'd even got to Mantaic. How had he not noticed before?! Ah, there was nothing he could do though so... Might as well just try to make her feel better.

Although, it _was_ going to be a pain having to repeat himself how many times over.

"I know they all meant well, but..." more coughing,"But...everything they were doing...was annoying. It's annoying not being able to hear people that well, in fact, I can barely even hear myself talk. It's so annoying! But, thank you for not being annoying once in your life, old man."

Raven grinned, continuing to stroke Rita's hair. He didn't bother talking, she probably wouldn't be able to hear him that great anyway. A few moments of silence filled the air once more before the young girl started coughing again, and Raven reached into his pocket, taking out a small box and raising it in front of the girl's face. It was her cough candies that Judy bought her, which the sick girl dropped when she 'fainted'. Shakily taking the box from the older man, Rita opened it up and plopped one of the orange candies in her mouth, then placed the box on the bedside table.

A longer moment of silence lasted, Raven still weaving his hand through the girl's hair, who swished the medicine around in her mouth. Hazy emerald eyes kept staring at the older man, wondering why he stayed.

"You'll get sick, too, if you stay by me so much..."

Raven shook his head, raising his voice a bit higher as he spoke so she could hear easier,"Nah, I'll be fine! Raven the Great is immune to sickness! Unless we go to Zopheir again... I'll get sick in a heartbeat... But now, you get some sleep, kiddo, ya won't get better if ya don't!"

Rita rolled her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep. Raven's smile deeped when the girl was fast asleep, and he slowly lifted himself up and moved closer to the window, staring outside.

Stuffing his hands in his pocket, he slowly looked at the sleeping girl,"Heh..." he muttered, turning back to the window and clutching his chest,"Rita, ya dunno what annoyin' is. Trust me."

---

Sneakers: SUP. So yeah. I'm sick. Whoo. Back from my grandparents lol. My grandpa bought me a laptop. I'm so spoiled. 8D;;

So anyway, last three days of being at my grandparent's, I end up getting sick. On the plane ride home, my ears started hurting like a bitch during the descent.

The next day, I could barely hear lololo, and I've been gettin worse from there on. XD

So this one-shot was inspired by me being sick lol.

Sorry it sucks, it's not easy writing things when you're sick. XD;

God, I hate colds lol.

And sorry for any uh...random...OOCness. XD;


End file.
